Inland buys Naperville shopping center

(Crain's) -- Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. has purchased a grocery-anchored shopping center in Naperville in a $23.1-million all-cash deal.

An affiliate of Inland bought Fox Run Square, anchored by Dominick's Finer Foods, in a transaction that closed Jan. 16, property records show. The seller was a venture owned by members of the Caveney family, which also owns Panduit Corp., a Tinley Park manufacturer of networking and electrical equipment, public records show.

"It has always been a steady performer because it is in such a good location," says Victor Dunbar, sales director with Bloomingdale-based American Commercial Real Estate Inc., which handled leasing for the center before the sale.

The price is about $153 a square foot, slightly less than last year's average price for similar properties in the Chicago area, according to real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc.

In 2007, the average price of local strip malls and neighborhood shopping centers fell 16%, to $159 per square foot, compared to 2006, New York-based Real Capital says in a recent report.

A partnership owned by the Caveney family developed the center, which was completed in 1987.

Gerald Caveny, an attorney, Panduit's corporate secretary and president of the company that had owned Fox Run, could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for Oak Brook-based Inland could not be reached for comment.

Last fall, privately held Panduit announced plans to develop a new headquarters building but remain in Tinley Park.